Orange County Branch Newsletter

June 2018

ASCE OC Younger Members Forum

How to Start Your Own Business

By Josue Candelario, E.I.T.

What type of company would you like to have? Does your company’s name shine bright in Downtown Los Angeles, or is your firm based in a small city, working on local projects? What type of entity will you register as, and where will your office be located? There are a few things to ask yourself before treading down the path of starting your own company. On March 27th Joubin Pakpour came to Orange County to give insight on what it takes to start your own engineering consulting firm.

There are two big reasons why start-up businesses do not make it past the first year. Ranking in second, is not choosing the right partner. Starting a company with partners is like having a relationship, and you need direction for a relationship to work. Success is different for everyone, and can be measured by a multitude of things such as wealth, freedom, and legacy. Make sure everyone is on board on how the company will be run and what benefits the company will give back to the employees.

The number one mistake for young businesses is cash flow. Cash flow is related to how much money you are making compared to how much you are paying. For example, you are awarded a contract on day 1, send the bill on day 60, but you won’t get paid until day 120 because of the 60 day waiting period of your payment. This results in four months of costs with no income and is part of the reason why 80 percent of young businesses fail.

This is a snip-it of the valuable knowledge Mr. Pakpour shared with attendees for this event. If you would like to find out more about ASCE OC YMF and attend events like these please be sure to check out our website (http://www.ymf-oc.org/)!